According to published reports, Mark Lucovsky, an engineering director at Google, has left the search giant for a new position at VMware.
Despite having been hard at work over the last several years helping Google develop and deliver on its Google APIs strategy, Lucovsky is perhaps best known as the man who allegedly made Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer so angry that he threw a chair when Lucovsky told Ballmer he was leaving Microsoft for a job at Google.
When word of Lucovsky’s plans to leave Microsoft for Google got out, many observers saw it as proof that Google would be building an operating system because of his history of building operating system technology at Microsoft. Google now has announced plans to deliver its Chrome OS, but there is no indication Lucovsky was involved in any way in the development of the technology.
At VMware, Lucovsky will be reunited with former Microsoft colleagues including Paul Maritz, president and CEO of VMware, and Tod Nielsen, chief operating officer at the virtualization software provider.
While at Microsoft, Lucovsky worked on Windows NT and other operating system technology, in addition to playing a leading role in architecting the infamous Hailstorm project. Although Hailstorm was never released, at least not in the form Microsoft initially intended, many believe it to have been a jump-off for what is now known as the open Web.
In a blog post from 2005, Lucovsky said, “While it is true that Microsoft never shipped the system (at least not yet anyway), I wonder if others are successfully shipping the essence of HailStorm?”
Moreover, Lucovsky added:
““Let us look back one more time on the central concepts, or the essence of HailStorm:Network Centric, Extensible Data Model, for Everyday DataData Decoupled from ApplicationsAnytime, Anyplace, and from Any Device AccessIdentity Centric Data Access”I believe that there are systems out there today that are based in large part on a similar set of core concepts. My feeling is that the various RSS/Atom based systems share these core concepts and are therefore very similar, and more importantly, that a vibrant, open and accessible, developer friendly eco-system is forming around these systems. …”“
Lucovsky spent 16 years at Microsoft and attained the title of Distinguished Engineer before he left the company. Prior to that, he worked as an engineer at Digital Equipment Corp. alongside legendary software developers such as Dave Cutler, who became the lead architect for Windows NT, and Lou Perazzoli, who also moved to Microsoft to work on NT.
Lucovsky’s role at VMware has not yet been made available.
At VMware, Lucovsky also is indirectly reunited with other former Microsoft executives through EMC’s Decho entity, a sister company to VMware under the EMC umbrella. Maritz founded Pi, which EMC merged with another property, Mozy, in 2008 to create Decho, short for “Digital Echo.” Harel Kodesh, CEO of Decho, held a variety of executive positions at Microsoft where he started both Object Linking and Embedding (OLE)-which became the Component Object Model (COM)-and Windows CE. And Charles Fitzgerald, once dubbed Microsoft’s “secret weapon” and a chief strategist for the software giant, is vice president of product management at Decho.
Although only Lucovsky and Ballmer know for sure what really happened in that office some five years ago, Ballmer said Lucovsky’s version is a “gross exaggeration.” There is no word on whether Google CEO Eric Schmidt lifted a finger upon hearing the news of Lucovsky’s resignation.
In a Twitter message, Dion Almaer, co-founder of Ajaxian.com and former Google engineer, said, “Congrats to VMware on getting the no [expletive], ever-honest Mark Lucovsky from Google.”